entrepreneurial culture+.pdf

WORK OF
RELATIONSHIPS
BETWEEN THE ECONOMIC
ENVIRONMENT AND THE
ENTREPRENEURIAL
CULTURE IN SMALL FIRMS
ANTONIO MINGUZZI
Research Institute on Service Activities,
National Research Council, Naples,
and University of Molise, Campobasso, Italy
RENATO PASSARO
Research Institute on Service Activities,
National Research Council,
and Naval University Institute, Naples, Italy
In this article we maintain that the cultural evolution processes of small firms
EXECUTIVE are strongly influenced by the type of relationships that they establish with
SUMMARY the economic environment.
In the first part of the article, the main points of the discussion are set
forth. Here, the theoretical debate is presented and the existing relations be-
tween the entrepreneurial culture and the interaction of firms with their eco-
nomic environment is analyzed. In the second part of the article, the methodologies adopted for the statisti-
cal analysis are explained, and the results of the empirical analysis are presented. Finally, in the third
part the implications for practitioners, industrial policies, and future directions in research are discussed.
The importance of openness to change in the entrepreneurial culture is a basic assumption in this
study. It is well known that in small and medium firms, entrepreneurs often demonstrate “a resistance
to change” that limits the firm’petitiveness. In some observed territorial and industrial contexts this
resistance to change is determined by a cultural entrepreneurial homogeneity. This homogeneity is a result
Address correspondence to Antonio Minguzzi, Istituto di Ricerche sulle Attivita` Terziarie, Consiglio;
Nazionale delle Ricerche (R), Via M. Schipa 115, 80122, Napoli, Italia.; Phone: (39 081) 2470929;
Fax: (39 081) 2470933; E-mail: a.******@.it
The authors are grateful to the anonymous JBV referees and the editor for their very ments
on earlier drafts of this paper.
Journal of Business Venturing 16, 18